Charity Care

As part of our mission, Methodist Healthcare provides care to patients without financial means to pay for hospital services. Charity care will be provided to all patients who present themselves for care at any Methodist Healthcare facility without regard to race, creed, color or national origin and who are classified as financially or medically indigent.

A financially indigent person is one who is uninsured or underinsured and is accepted for care with no obligation or discounted obligation to pay for services based on income and family size. The hospital uses poverty income guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to determine a person’s eligibility for charity care.

A medically indigent patient is a person whose medical and hospital bills after payment by third party payers exceeds 10 percent of the person’s annual gross income and the person is unable to pay the remaining bill. Methodist Healthcare may consider other financial assets and liabilities of the patient when determining ability to pay.

Financial assistance with respect to emergency and medically necessary care may be available to patients who do not qualify for state or federal assistance. In most cases, patients that fall from 0 to 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines based on total household income may have a 100 percent charity discount processed (subject to income verification/documentation requirements). In certain cases, other discounts ranging from 40 to 90 percent may apply if the patient’s total household income exceeds these thresholds.

Further eligibility and assistance information, a copy of our financial assistance policy, the financial assistance application form and a plain language summary of the financial assistance policy (in either English or Español) are available by written request to the following address:

If you are eligible for financial assistance, the amount charged for emergency or other medically necessary care will not exceed amounts generally billed to patients with insurance.

Additional information concerning Methodist Healthcare’s charity care program and how to apply for charity care can be obtained from the admitting or business office of any Methodist Healthcare facility.